Nissan Launches Stripped Out 370Z NISMO RC Racer Ready for the Track

Ferrari and other luxury sports car makers aren't the only ones to offer race-spec variants of their series production models. Joining the club is Nissan with its newly revealed 370Z NISMO RC that is now available for customer orders.

The Japanese firm's track-ready racer is based on the street-legal 370Z NISMO but has undergone an extreme diet dropping the production model's luxury amenities. As a result, Nissan Motorsport engineers managed to shave more than 350 pounds off the 370Z NISMO RC, which tips the scales at just 2,954 lbs (1,339kg).

In addition to the crash diet, Nissan Motorsport also added numerous NISMO performance upgrades such as a race-spec exhaust system, a tuned ECM, a high capacity clutch, flywheel, engine oil, transmission and differential coolers.

Read more »

New Nissan Juke-R Video Reveals that the 3.8-Liter V6 Delivers 480-horses

Nissan is sure taking its time to reveal all the juicy details surrounding its wacky Juke-R project.

After releasing the first picture of the finished product earlier this week, on Wednesday, the Japanese automaker published a new batch of images and a video shot during the fitting of the Nissan GT-R's 3.8-liter turbocharged V6 engine.

Read more »

Nissan to Show New Yorkers NV200 Taxi of Tomorrow in November

Back in May this year, Michael R. Bloomberg announced that the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) selected the Nissan NV200 minivan as the exclusive cab of New York City for the next 10 years, beginning in late 2013.

Now, the public as well as taxi owners will be able to see and feel the Nissan NV200 Taxi in person almost a year before it enters service, at the Nissan Taxi of Tomorrow Design Expo, which takes place from November 1 to 5 on the pedestrian plaza across from the Flatiron building at Broadway and Fifth Avenue.

Read more »

Nissan Shows the Juke-R in the Flesh for the First Time

Nissan surprised an unwary audience at an unrelated crossover media launch in Malaga, Spain, with the reveal of the first finished prototype of the Juke-R concept in the metal.

The Japanese company plans to build two examples of the Juke-R in left- and right-hand drive. The prototype shown in Spain was the left-hand drive model.

Read more »

Carlos Ghosn Says 2012 will be a Record Sales Year, Bets Heavily on EVs

Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn is upbeat about the way the automotive industry is heading, despite the fact that the economic crisis that threatens Europe is far from over.

In fact, during the recent launch of the electric versions of theRenault Fluence and Kangoo in Portugal last Friday, Ghosn predicted that 2012 will be a record year for car sales worldwide surpassing 2011's volumes.

Read more »

Nissan Shows how the GT-R-Powered Juke R is Being Built on Film

The first Nissan Juke-R prototype will likely make its public debut in final form at the forthcoming Tokyo Motor Show in December, but until then, the Japanese company is giving viewers a behind the scenes look at the process that went into building the Godzilla crossover. Read more »

Nissan Develops New Hybrid System with a 2.5-liter Supercharged Engine for FWD Cars

Not to be outdone by its Japanese and European rivals, Nissan has developed a new hybrid system for front-wheel drive vehicles, the first details of which were released today along with the announcement of its next generation XTRONIC CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) for use with 2.0-liter to 3.5-liter engines.

Nissan came a bit late to the hybrid game and was forced to license hybrid technology from its Toyota rival for use in certain markets in 2004.

“It was a bit of a blow to our pride, but that was the right thing to do under the circumstances,” says Mitsunobu Fukuda, a senior powertrain engineer at NATC (Nissan Advanced Technology Center).

“Instead of rushing out a ‘copy-cat’ hybrid we wanted to take the time to develop our own hybrid, one that is clearly different – and better. I think we’ve managed to do that.”

Read more »

Nissan Drops Price of LEAF Home Charging System to $1,818

Good news for American customers interested in acquiring Nissan's pure-electric LEAF hatchback with a home charging system as the Japanese company announced today a noteworthy price drop.

When Nissan released pricing for the LEAF in 2010, the home charging system, developed by AeroVironment, carried an MSRP of US$2,200. Now it is available at a cost of US$1,818, including hardware and installation services for or a typical home fitting.

Read more »

Nissan Publishes New Video on Juke GT-R Project

Slowly, but steadily, Nissan is releasing more information and visual material on its crazy Juke-R design project that bonds together the body of the small crossover with the mechanical hardware of the GT-R sports car.

The second consecutive video tells us about the key technologies that are being transferred from the GT-R to the Juke including the electronics, the engine and the drivetrain.

Read more »

Japanese Carmakers' Production Back on Track, But it May not be Enough

For the first time after the March 11 earthquake and Tsunami, Japanese automakers have returned to their normal production levels. In fact, they are superseding last year’s numbers in an effort to make up for the lost time.

Toyota and Nissan, Japan’s two biggest car manufacturers are leading the pack, reporting increased production for the first time since March, with Mazda, Suzuki, Honda, Subaru and Mitsubishi following their lead.

Read more »

Toyota Warns Suppliers to Lower their Prices, or Else…

The strong yen is harming the profitability of Japanese carmakers. After Honda, which plans to halve its domestic production over the next decade, Toyota, Japan’s number one automaker, told its parts suppliers to severely reduce their prices or risk being replaced by overseas manufacturers. Read more »

2012 Nissan 370Z gains Standard Oil Cooler, Base Manual Model Dropped from Roadster Range

Having entered the final quarter of 2011, automakers are ushering in their new model year lineups, though most of the times, there's nothing really "new" about the cars other than the different designations.

That's more or less the case with the 2012 Nissan 370Z series. The only changes for the new model year concern the addition of an oil-cooler as standard on both body styles, while Nissan eliminated the base 370Z Roadster with the 6-speed manual, leaving the more expensive Touring model for those that want to manually change gears while enjoying the sun.

Read more »

Time-Waster of the Day: Nissan Europe Launches New 3D Juke Site

The Juke has seen its fair share of publicity, mostly due to its unusual shape and the fact that it is Nissan’s first entry in the small crossover segment. The most recent stunt is the announcement on the development of the Juke-R with modified GT-R underpinnings.

Now Nissan has moved on to another fantasy realm: not the “what if” 530HP Juke prototype, but the virtual one. Its European division has launched Stage JUK3D, an online module that promises to give its users “an incredibly immersive experience of discovering and driving” the carmaker’s small crossover.

Read more »

Nissan Juke-R: Insane Super Crossover with 530HP GT-R Powertrain! [Video]

If you thought that the Nissan Juke's design was pushing the envelope a wee bit too far, wait until you see what the Japanese carmaker's engineers are readying. Meet the Nissan Juke-R, one of the craziest ideas we have heard in a long, long while. And yes, the 'R' in the name is what you think it is: the heart and soul of the…Godzilla!

A team over at Nissan Europe came up with the bright idea of fitting the Juke small crossover with the engine and drivetrain of the latest GT-R. The street legal prototype is currently being developed by Nissan and built by motorsports outfit RML with input from Nissan Technology Centre for Europe (NTC-E).

Read more »

Tuned Nissan GT-R Embarrasses Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 on the Drag Strip

As they say, more equals less, or to put it into context, the more horsepower a car has, the less time it will need to cover a defined distance.

And while the new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 with its 6.5-liter V12 engine pushing out a hefty 700-horses for a factory 0 to 100km/h (62mph) sprint time of 2.9 seconds is by no means a slouch, 700HP is significantly less than around 1000HP.

That was the case with the R35 that went up against the white Aventador in the drag strip race you're about to watch after the break. According to the YouTube poster, this wasn't your run-of-the-mill Nissan GT-R but a heavily tuned R35 packing close to 1,000-horses under its hood.

Read more »

Nissan GT-R Smacks Ferrari 458 on the Highway, But Fails Miserably on a Twisty Road

The Nissan GT-R is something like a poor-man's supercar – and there is nothing wrong with that in our book. It has beaten/embarrassed vehicles costing several times as much on more occasions that we can care to remember.

However, sometimes we tend to forget that being fast is as much about the car as it is about the driver. Case in point, a friendly road race between an SP Engineering-prepped Nissan GT-R and a Ferrari 458 Italia.

Read more »

Video: Man Drives Nissan In and Out of Chinese Hospital

A security camera at a hospital in Jinzhou city of Northeast China's Liaoning province captured this amazing footage of a man driving a Nissan sedan (or so that's the kind of car being reported) into the lobby and trying to do something that resembles donuts.

After a while, the man smashed his way out of the entrance and drove off only to return and give it another try. Fortunately for the staff and patients, he didn't manage to enter the hospital the second time and was quickly apprehended.

Read more »

Ad Watch: Nissan's Redonkulous Frontier TV Spot

Most commercials should be taken with a pinch of salt, but sometimes advertisers outdo themselves in silliness. In Nissan's case, the Japanese automaker wanted to convey the message that the Frontier is a "mid-size truck that acts like a full size, giving the driver the feeling they can tackle any obstacle".

And how did Nissan's advertising agency deliver the message? With a Nissan Frontier intervening and saving the day when a passenger airplane's front landing gear jams…

Of course, there's the usual but barely noticeable "Fictionalization. Do not attempt" footnote on the right hand corner. You can watch the ad in the video after the break.

Read more »